LONDON and DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip — In the children’s ward in the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al Balah, central Gaza, the impact of Gaza’s deteriorating humanitarian crisis is on full display.
There are around 30 children receiving treatment in the ward, local staff told ABC News, and all of them are suffering from the effects of malnutrition. Nourhan Salha said she took her 5-month-old daughter to the hospital after she fell ill and was unable to gain weight.
Haya suffered from complications at birth, her mother said, due to a lack of oxygen. The baby’s weak immune system at birth was exacerbated by a lack of baby formula available in Gaza, Nourhan said.
“It’s a difficult feeling to see my daughter sick,” she said. “And I can’t do anything for her. It’s a really hard thing for a mother to feel like this; it’s indescribable.”
COGAT, the Israel organization in charge of facilitating aid into the Gaza Strip, says there is no ban on baby formula entering the strip, and they have delivered over 2,000 tons of formula and baby food into Gaza.
Hatem Khaled/Reuters – PHOTO: Smoke rises during Israeli strikes amid the Israeli military operation in Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, July 21, 2025.
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But Salha said that baby formula is difficult to access, either due to a lack of availability or prohibitively high prices. UNRWA, the UN agency that supports Palestinian refugees, says that “malnutrition has increased amid severe shortages of nutrition supplies” and that one in ten children screened in their medical facilities is malnourished.
The United Nations Population Fund has warned that pregnant women are particularly vulnerable in Gaza, with hunger increasing the chance of miscarriages, low birth rate and other complications for newborns.
Some of the children at Al Aqsa Martyrs are suffering from other conditions, exacerbated by their underlying malnutrition, doctors said.
Om Ismael Abu Zannana, a mother of three, took her 2-year-old daughter to the hospital after they struggled to find food for several days after she said the family had been displaced a week ago. Her daughter fainted, she said, after feeling dizzy.
“My daughter wants to eat, and I can’t afford to get her or myself anything to eat. Or to my other children at the tent,” Zannana told ABC News.
In the hospital, Haya is able to drink some of the formula she desperately needs, her mother said. But each day is a struggle for survival.
“Sometimes we buy [formula] from the market. It used to be available,” she said. “But now it’s not. It’s too expensive and not available in enough quantities.”
At the nearby Deir al Balah market, what were once thriving stalls full of produce now look scarce. Shopkeepers and customers complain of both a lack of supply, and the food and basic necessities they do have on offer are prohibitively expensive for many.
“Prices are unimaginable, the situation is tragic,” Ayed Shaheen, a shopkeeper, told ABC News. Asked about prospective ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, Shaheen’s ire seemed to turn towards the Hamas negotiators abroad, who are in talks with Israel.
“Find us a solution, what are you negotiating about?” he said. “We are humans, not dogs, we want to eat and live, just like you [negotiators] living abroad eating meat, lamb and fish and living the best way. We want to live like you are living.”
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The World Food Programme warned on Sunday that 90,000 women and children in Gaza now urgently need treatment for malnutrition, but for many there does not appear to be respite from the Israeli military campaign in the near future. Israel denies there is widespread starvation in Gaza, and has accused Hamas of exploiting humanitarian aid deliveries to pay for its “war machine.”
On Sunday, the IDF issued new evacuation orders for the city of Deir al Balah, although neither the market nor the hospital fall under the latest evacuation orders.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP – PHOTO: Illumination flares launched by the Israeli army are seen over Deir al-Balah in central Gaza Strip Monday, July 21, 2025.
The evacuation order has cut off the coastal area of Al Mawasi, where thousands of Palestinians are living in tents, from the city to the rest of central Gaza, where most humanitarian organizations in the Strip are headquartered, according to a visual analysis by ABC News.
From the market, smoke can be seen rising in the near distance from the renewed attacks on the city. As the war continues to close in, Nourhan hopes that her family will not be abandoned.
“I ask the world to stop the war,” she said. “Open the borders and provide milk and diapers for the children. It’s not fair what’s happening to us.”
Witnesses have reported a major increase in military activity in the city, which has so far been relatively untouched in over 21 months of war.
From the market, smoke from Israel’s expanded ground operation there can be seen rising in the near distance.
